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Q&A
Discussion on current jail population and challenges in reducing numbers
2:06:37
ยท
175 sec
Council Member Stevens and Commissioner Maginley-Liddie discuss the current jail population and challenges in reducing numbers to meet the goal for closing Rikers Island. The commissioner acknowledges the struggle to reduce the population, citing issues such as holding state-ready individuals due to upstate strikes.
- Current jail population is approximately 6,879 individuals
- Challenges include holding state-ready individuals (327 as of the hearing date)
- The commissioner is using tools like the 6A program to try to reduce population while balancing public safety concerns
Althea Stevens
2:06:37
On 10/19/2019, when the city council voted on the bar based gels, ULUIP, the population on Rackers were was around 7,000 with the goal of reducing the population to 3,300 people by 2026.
2:06:51
Commissioner, your predecessor testified according to internal forecasting produced by the Department of Corrections, the jail population would continue to rise and this number could climb to over 7,000 and that is by 2027.
2:07:05
The date Rackers is legally mandated to close, we will have a population higher than that can be housed in the broad based jails.
2:07:12
After being commissioner for the department for over a year, would you say you agree with the former commissioner when it comes to the city ability to reduce jail population?
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie
2:07:22
I mean as of today, I mean yesterday's census, we had approximately 6,879 individuals in custody.
Althea Stevens
2:07:31
I'm sick, say that again, 12,879
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie
2:07:35
individuals in custody.
2:07:36
And one of the challenges for us and I mean what's happening upstate right now with the strikes upstate, we're also holding people who are scheduled to go upstate.
2:07:49
So we have as of today we have three twenty seven people who are state ready.
2:07:56
As you are aware the only ability and tool that I have as commissioner which you know to balance public safety you know and look at the individual in our care and their conduct during the time they're in our custody is 6A.
2:08:12
And is something that I've been doing aggressively looking at the individuals who are eligible and as of today from the time I've been appointed commissioner I've released 78 individuals.
2:08:24
And we continue to work with our partners which includes the OCA and MACJ to work on efforts to depopulate, know for depopulation of the individuals in custody.
Althea Stevens
2:08:38
So you see this as a struggle obviously?
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie
2:08:40
Absolutely.
2:08:42
One of the things I mean and I'll just we're looking at holistically how can we make this work, right.
2:08:49
We understand as a lawyer I understand we have case delays, case processing, that's an issue.
2:08:54
So we looked at how can we eliminate the barriers for that.
2:08:58
That's why in the testimony I addressed that if an attorney needed to come in and go through discovery with their client, they should be able to do so with their laptop.
2:09:07
We're also exploring an application where individuals can review their discovery on the tablet and if they don't have a tablet that they can go to the law library and review that information on a laptop there.
2:09:19
But the issue is case processing.
2:09:22
We don't determine who comes into custody but we're trying to do everything that we can possibly do to assist in this effort.
2:09:31
Okay.